1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a toy construction system, and more particularly, to such a system in which components are uniquely formed and can be assembled in a unique manner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Over the years, many structural toys have been devised and marketed comprising elongated elements connected by joint elements in the form of cubes, spheres, disks, or other appropriate compact components to produce an architectural structure or a replica of a machine or vehicle. The elements and components of such toys have been of great variety, some of simple design and others of fairly complex design. When of complex design, they have been expensive to manufacture. Some of these toys suffer from the fault of rapid wear so that after moderate use, the parts are no longer friction tight and no longer capable of maintaining necessary connections.
In contrast, the present invention provides components of exceedingly simple design, easy and inexpensive to manufacture, and adapted to be used by young children as well as by the older set. Further, while the components are to be fastened and held together by friction, by their,inherent design, wear is minimal and the life of the components and resulting structures and vehicles is maximized.
There are numerous examples of toy construction sets exemplified by patents. A very early example is U.S. Pat. No. 853,756 to Bétis which discloses an educational appliance for kindergarten work in the form of a counting frame in which is arranged a plurality of units in the form of cubes or blocks of any shape, each bearing a plurality of letters, figures, colors or other differentiated faces, susceptible of the various groupings or arrangements required by such work, Toy construction sets using, as a primary component, rods with bifurcated or slotted ends for fitting reception in other components with bored openings are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,113,371 and 2,208,049 to Pajeau, and 3,698,123 to Heldt. U.S. Pat. No. 2,662,335 to Caverley discloses a set of toy or doll building pieces comprising bodies, heads, limbs, feet, and connecting elements which may be interchangeably interconnected. Apparatus for constructing molecular models may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 1,851,159 to Dodge, U.S. Pat. No. 2,962,820 to Petersen, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,939,581 to Clarke, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,404 to Fischer discloses a technique of constructing an assembly by connecting hollow structural elements with specially formed connecting elements. A construction toy system which comprises a variety of molded plastic connector elements arranged to be joined with rod-like struts to form complex structural units is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,919 to Glickman. A variety of other toy structural construction sets and techniques are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,255 to Warehime, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,120,253 and 5,282,767 to Gelardi. U.S. Pat. No. 6,461,215 to Kunz et al. discloses toy building sets in the form of box-shaped building blocks provided with coupling studs on one side and complementary coupling holes on an opposite side further provided with a tubular, elongated, flexible, corrugated building element to produce a unique structure.
It was in light of the foregoing that the present invention was conceived and has now been reduced to practice.